


Something Better: The Jailbreak

by Sarifel-Corrisafid-Ilxhel (Sarifel)



Series: Something Better [1]
Category: Animorphs - Katherine A. Applegate
Genre: Escape from the Yeerk Pool, Gen, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Yeerks
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-02-13
Updated: 2019-04-08
Packaged: 2019-10-27 13:13:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,543
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17767439
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sarifel/pseuds/Sarifel-Corrisafid-Ilxhel
Summary: A Controller finds themself in an unexpected situation when their Yeerk goes missing.





	1. Chapter 1

I waited with that vile sludge around my head. I waited for that touch against my ear, that all too familiar sense of losing my body to the sneering alien slug that wormed its way into my head. I waited until my lungs began to burn. I considered trying to inhale as much of the fluid as I could. Maybe I'd finally be able to drown myself before the Yeerk took control. But nothing touched my ear. Nothing slithered inside me to take control.

My heart skipped a beat. I could vaguely see the Yeerks in the fluid, darting around, waiting for their own hosts. They were ignoring me, however. Yeerks don’t just take any host, they wait for the one that smells like their own signalling pheromones to be offered. Infestation of new hosts took place elsewhere most of the time. These Yeerks all had someone already picked out for them, Yeerks didn’t steal each other’s hosts, and I already had a Yeerk that had marked my ear.

And my Yeerk was missing.

It hit me in a moment. This was my chance! This was my moment to escape! I just had to...I had to bluff my way past guards trained to look for Controllers. Yeah, _right_. I was going to be found out in seconds, I just knew it. But I had to try. If the Yeerk that made my life hell wasn’t showing up, then I wasn’t going to stick around to get a new one.

I let my body relax as best as I could, and the Hork-Bajir lifted my head from the sludge with far more care than they had shoved me under. That was the signal they looked for- The moment the fighting stopped, the tension left, and the Yeerk took control.

The Hork-Bajir looked at me curiously, and I stared into their eyes with all the firmness I could muster. “What are you looking at, bark-breath?”

They glanced at each other, muttering in the alien pidgin that Hork-Bajir Controllers tended to use. I never understood why the Yeerks developed different languages based on which hosts they had- maybe they didn’t have as much control as they thought?

I stared between them. My chance to escape was collapsing with every second they deliberated. I had to act now! “Well?! I have to report to the Visser!” I snapped as I pushed past them. They went completely still with shock before slowly nodding. Force. I needed to be forceful. The Yeerk was always rude, arrogant, stuck-up, and forceful.

I passed the Gedd that waited at the end of the pier with a stack of towels. They watched me with a mix of admiration and fear- Gedd-Controllers always watched the Hork-Bajir Controllers and Human Controllers like that. Hork-Bajir had blades and Humans had everything else. I hated that I was leaving the other people who needed help behind. My stomach turned as I watched another kicking, screaming Human get dragged up the reinfestation pier.

No. If I escaped, maybe I could get help for them.

I held my hand out expectantly. “Well? I haven’t got all day! Or do you want the Visser to think I was being held up on purpose?” The words came naturally- Some combination of them had been uttered with my mouth before. The Gedd gingerly held out a towel, which I snatched and quickly dried my head off with before I set off at a determined pace. Look important. Look like I was needed elsewhere urgently. Look like I’d have anybody who even looked at me executed. I could do that, right? The Yeerk managed it with my face all the time, so why couldn’t I?

And when no one else was looking anymore, I made my way towards the exit closest to my home. As I rounded a corner behind one of the shacks built on the edge of the Yeerk Pool, I took a deep breath. I’d gotten further than should have ever been possible! The Yeerk that called me his slave had some pull as a member of the Visser’s security team, and though they weren’t a Subvisser, they certainly had the responsibility of one. No one questioned that I looked pissed- I always looked like that when I was down here. Me, the Human, and him, the Yeerk. We both always looked pissed.

I waited a moment. Was I being followed? I peered out around the edge of the shack carefully, taking the slightest breaths possible to avoid alerting any Hork-Bajir that might be lurking nearby. A few were always posted near the exits these days in case the Andalite bandits attacked again. Man, what I wouldn’t give to find those nutjobs and shake their hands.

But no, I realized, I wasn’t being followed. No one needed me for anything, and no one questioned that someone who worked directly under the Visser had to rush to meet with him for something- if the Visser needed you, you moved with purpose.

Slowly, it dawned on me as I began to climb the stairs up to the McDonalds that served as the Yeerk Pool entrance here. I was free. I was free! If I could get out of the McDonalds unscathed, I was home free!! But...why? I clenched a trembling hand into a fist as I continued to climb. It shouldn’t have been possible! Just...look mean and I could walk right out of the Yeerk Pool? Were the Yeerks so confident in infestation at the pier that they never thought somebody could just walk away?

Well I wasn’t going to look a gift horse in the mouth. I was FREE! I burst through the door into the unused supply closet at the rear and strode out the front of the McDonalds before letting myself finally feel what I’d been hiding this whole time. When I was some distance away, I collapsed into a sitting position on the curb, and I cried. After everything, after all the hell, I was finally free.

 

Two hours later, I was finally marching up the stairs of my house when I noticed the door to my brother’s room was cracked open. I slowly opened it a little further to see his desk lamp was still on, and he was slumped over the desk and drooling on unfinished homework. My heart wrenched- after everything I’d been through, his life was so much better than mine. I went to the Yeerk Pool every three days. He went to school. I hung out with aliens bent on enslaving the Human race. He hung out with dorks. I slept with a Dracon beam under my mattress. He slept without a care in the world.

I sighed. I knew he wasn’t a Controller- My Yeerk never stopped reminding me that fact could change whenever they wanted, but so far they’d left my brother alone. I had to tell him, I thought. My breath caught in my throat as I stepped into the room and tapped his shoulder gently to wake him.

“Jake. Jake wake up.”

He slowly came to before immediately shoving away from me with a start. Why did I scare him that much? It must have been the Yeerk. He'd been messing with my brother just for the hell of it. Jake never knew it wasn't really me doing that to him. I tried to stop the trembling in my hands. He was about to find out.

Jake stared up at me before slowly wiping the drool from his face and staring at his homework. “Oh. Hey Tom, what’s up? I was just doing my homework...guess I passed out.” He glanced at the clock on his nightstand. “It’s 2 AM. What’re you doing up?”

“Ummm...Jake...I’m free. I’m finally free.” I felt my voice crack, and before I knew what I was saying, it all came out. He simply sat there, giving me a dazed and tired look as I explained with trembling voice and shaking hands everything I’d been through. Everything that was happening. To his credit, he didn’t run or scream, he didn’t start calling me crazy, he just...sat there. Blinking occasionally. His eyes went unfocused a couple times. Maybe 2 AM in the morning wasn’t the best time to tell your brother you’d been enslaved by aliens.

When I was done, trembling and panting for breath, clenching and unclenching my hands just because I could, he gave me half a smile.

“Wow, um...that’s a pretty big nightmare.” That was all he could manage. He’d heard all of that, and he assumed it was a nightmare? “Hey, um, I kind of need to finish this and get some sleep...are you going to be okay?”

I gulped. I needed to find some way to prove it to him. Why, I wondered? It wasn’t like he could help! I needed to prove it to the Army, the Police, somebody with guns! Why was I pouring it out to him? But I gulped, and I nodded.

“Y-Yeah. I’m going back to bed...” Just a nightmare. That’s all he thought it was- Just a nightmare. “Goodnight Midget.” I turned and left his room as he slumped in his chair. Just a nightmare. That’s all he thought it was. Just a nightmare... I wished I had a way to tell him it was more than that.


	2. Chapter 2

My name is Tom. It’s short for Thomas. It’s supposed to mean ‘twin brother’, but for the past couple of years it might as well have meant ‘slave’. Funny, I never had a twin brother. But I was a slave.

You see, Earth is being invaded by these mind-control slugs called Yeerks that slither into your ear and... I don’t know why I’m telling you this, it’s not like you can do anything about it. Sure, you could, I don’t know, tell the police. But they might already be enslaved by the Yeerks. And even if they weren't, who would believe you? Who would believe me, for that matter?

That was the question that kept me up all night after I got home. I was free from the Yeerks, somehow. I didn’t understand it. Could it have been a clerical error? I hated to think that my freedom, however brief it was going to be, was all down to just paperwork. But that was the only explanation I could come up with. My Yeerk got reassigned, but no Yeerk was assigned to infest me. Or, if one had been, they were late to the pier and missed me.

In which case, a moving van full of Hork-Bajir would be pulling up outside my house any minute to take me, my parents, and my younger brother Jake all down to the Yeerk Pool for fun and games. And by fun and games, I mean brain slugs.

That was one of those things that kept me up all night, peeking out the window as I clutched a Dracon. Right. Because one measly raygun would stop a horde of Hork-Bajir. These things can’t even stop a wolf, and wolves are _smaller than I am_. I should know. I’ve shot a wolf with this thing at least twice. Well... not a wolf, really an Andalite bandit in morph. And I wasn’t the one doing the shooting, technically.

I jumped as a noise went off behind me, loud and grating. An alarm. Danger. No... No. It was just my alarm clock, set to an ungodly hour at the whim of the American education system. I cursed under my breath as I glanced down at the Dracon in my hands. I still had school. Senior year of highschool couldn’t have happened at a worse time. Or rather, I guess, Yeerks couldn’t have happened at a worse time. As if highschool wasn’t already bad enough, I’d spent all of it as a Controller.

Wait. There were Controllers at the highschool. I swore again before I pulled a small datapad out of the nightstand by my bed and checked the schedule the Yeerks supposedly had for me. Good news- No changes. I was supposed to be infested by a Yeerk named Ginar 984 now, and that information wasn’t changed. Maybe the Yeerks didn’t know. Right. I had exactly as long as it took Ginar 984 to realize his host is missing, and then I was dead, and so was my entire family. Well...that sucks.

What do you want me to say? It’s not like I planned to be freed! I have no idea where I’m supposed to go from here, and for all I know I may have only minutes before there’s a slug in my head again! So...Obviously that meant do something now. While I could. But what? The Human resistance is a joke, the Yeerk Peace Movement are useless, the free Hork-Bajir rebels and the underground Taxxon movement wouldn’t want me since I’m not one of them... That left the Andalite bandits. And believe me, if anyone knew how to get in touch with them, there _wouldn’t be_ any Andalite bandits.

Well, first things first. If my time was limited, then I sure as hell wasn’t spending it in school surrounded by Controllers. I looked through the datapad again. I needed a reason to not show up, something the Yeerks would buy.

 _Acute Upper Respiratory Infection with fever._ Right. The Yeerks take host health seriously and would accept that as a reason to stay in bed. Mind you, host comfort is the furthest thing from their minds, but host health is important. I shot the message off to the assistant principal and waited. And waited. And waited.

After fifteen minutes it was acknowledged with an order that if the symptoms didn’t improve in 24 hours, I was to report to the Yeerk Pool’s medical facilities. Followed by the obligatory and oh-so-mocking _Get Well Soon_. Yeerk humor. It never gets any better.

That left convincing Mom and Dad. That would be the easy part. Unlike Jake, I was a model son, so I could probably get away with a sick day. Then again, I was a model son because of the Yeerk, so who even knew if I could pull this off. I crept out of my room and up the hallway to theirs.

“Hey um, Mom, Dad...I’m not feeling so well. I don’t think I can go to school today.”

I swear, Dad laughed. “Must be pretty bad then if you’re telling us that now. It’s Saturday.” Dad opened the door and gave me a look. Then he felt my forehead. “Did you catch a cold?”

“Uh...” It was Saturday? Well that...solved one problem, I guess. “Yes? It feels like an alien’s about to split my head open from the inside.” Why did I say that? _Why did I say that?!_

Dad laughed. “Well get some food and go back to bed. Rest is the best thing for cranial chestbursters.” With that, I turned away and stomped into the kitchen. Well, he was right about one thing. I was hungry, and no one ever fought off an alien invasion hungry. No one has ever fought off an alien invasion, of course...

 

Jake was already in the kitchen when I got there. Had he been up all night? He sure looked like it. He glanced over at me from the pantry. “Oh. Hey Tom.”

“Hey,” I grunted. He still didn’t look like he believed a word of what I said last night. I stared past him into the pantry, wondering what in here I’d eat like it was my last meal before an execution. Bacon and eggs sounded good. With icecream. Bacon and chocolate icecream sounded really good. Hey, if I’m only going to get to do this once, I might as well enjoy myself.

He blinked. “What, no Midget this time?”

“Uh...” I had absolutely no idea what to say to that, and for a moment the kitchen was uncomfortably silent.

Finally, he cracked a grin. “Guess I’m too tall to be a midget now, huh?”

“Oh.” I tried to roll my eyes. “Yeah, some actual midgets called and said being associated with you was offensive. Don’t worry, I’ll think of something else to call you.” Wow, that felt good. Getting to insult my brother without an alien calling the shots is surprisingly cathartic, it turns out. So is making bacon. And getting a scoop of ice cream from the freezer. And watching Jake’s disgusted face as he realized what I was making.

He eventually sat down at the table across from me with a bowl of instant oatmeal. Maple and ginger. A Yeerk’s kryptonite. Endril 598 refused to touch the stuff and was absolutely livid that Jake kept requesting it whenever Mom or Dad went for groceries. To be honest, that was one thing the slug and I agreed on. Who in their right mind puts ginger and maple together?

“Do you really have to eat that stuff?” I wondered.

He looked up halfway into shoving a spoonful into his mouth, and his face twitched. “Well yeah, Mom and Dad bought it.”

“Because you asked them to.”

He shrugged a little. “Maybe I like it.” Judging by the look on his face...well it was obvious he didn’t love the stuff. But he tolerated it with a tablespoon of cinnamon and sugar on it.

“You do know that stuff is poisonous to Yeerks, right? That’s why I never touched it.”

Jake blinked. “Yeerks? Oh. Those...slug things you mentioned last night...” He glanced down at the oatmeal before sticking his spoon back in. “It’s kind of weird that this would be what they’re allergic to.”

“Yeah well the same thing happens if you mix ginger ale and oatmeal creme pies, so who even knows.” God I missed snacking on those when I was younger. Note to self: If I survive the next 24 hours, celebrate with oatmeal creme pies and ginger ale. Who knows, maybe the Yeerks wouldn’t infest me again if I was poisonous to them?

Shoot. That was a good idea. I shoved the bowl of too-warm icecream and too-cold bacon away and got up to make some oatmeal. Jake stared at me incredulously, occasionally managing to swallow a bite of food. When I sat back down at the table and dug into the oatmeal- yuck- he seemed to forget he had any food at all.

After several minutes of his staring, I had to know what was going on. “What?”

He shook his head a little. “That’s _my_ oatmeal,” he said with disbelief. “Are you really going to eat that? After eating...” He motioned at the now-melted ice cream and bacon. “That?”

“It’s my body, I can eat what I want to.” I swallowed a mouthful of slimey, disgusting instant oatmeal. It was actually surprisingly good for the first bite. Each bite after that, however, was almost enough to make me want my Yeerk back. Almost.

Jake finally stood up and took the bowl of icecream and his empty bowl to the sink. Right. Like Jake ever does the dishes. But to my surprise, he started to scrub them clean. He glanced back at me a couple of times, but whenever he caught me looking back at him, he looked down at the dishes. Right. Things weren’t...the best between us. Three years of a slug using me to screw with him will do that, I guess.

“So,” he asked eventually. “Any Sharing plans today?”

“Uh, no. Monday.” Crap. He wasn’t planning on going, was he? “But it’s been going downhill for the past few weeks, I’m thinking about not going.”

“Ah.” He gave me a knowing look. “Space slugs?”

“Space slugs,” I confirmed with a sigh. “Look...I know it’s stupid, but-”  
  
“It’s not stupid,” he said quickly. I stared at him as he fumbled with his words. “What I mean is, um, it’s a neat story. Might make a good movie someday.”

“Ah.” We stared at the table between us in silence for a moment. Finally, Jake turned towards the door.

“Um, anyways I’ve got plans with Marco. I’ll see you around, okay?”

I nodded slightly. “Have fun. Uh...” Crap. There are certain things you shouldn’t say if you’re cool, but there are certain people you should say those certain things to if you’re human. The result is awkward and embarrassing. “Love ya Jake. Stay safe.” There went any cool cred I had, but who knew if I’d ever get to say that again?

Jake blinked slowly as he paused halfway through the door. “Love you too Tom. Um...I’ll be back soon.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So a bit of inspiration hit for this story out of nowhere, and now I've got a plan for it! Woohoo!


	3. Chapter 3

Would you believe that it’s actually really hard to plan a way to fight back against an alien invasion when every noise makes you think living razorblades are breaking into your house? Yeah. Me neither. So this is the part where I tell you I came up with an amazing plan.

Or, well, I thought I did. It started when I laid down for ten minutes because Dad said I looked like hell and needed rest. It ended about five hours later with a loud BANG in the living room that jolted me out of bed. Crap. I’d way overslept.

See, I had this amazing plan. Find the Andalite bandits, get them to morph on TV to demonstrate their credentials, let them explain what was happening, and then....I dunno. Steal the Blade Ship? I swear, this sounded like a good plan in my head. But as I stumbled my way down the stairs with Dracon in hand, I realized two things.

One, I had fallen asleep and could have been taken at any moment while I’d been sleeping. So...yeah. That’s a fun thought! 

Two, Jake had returned home with friends. The loud noise was thankfully not a bunch of Hork-Bajir or Taxxons swarming the house. Instead, as I crept into the kitchen, I ran into Marco. Apparently, some people don’t know how to close pantry doors quietly. For some reason, that still ticked me off, even with bigger things to worry about. “Hey! You mind not breaking our doors?”

Now, Marco’s this kid Jake knows from school, and I’ve never had any reason to assume he might be a Controller before now. But that’s how Controllers usually work. We don’t even all know each other, for a variety of reasons, but mostly because different Vissers keep their units compartmentalized. Visser Three’s guys don’t talk to Visser One’s guys don’t talk to Visser Four’s guys, and so on and so forth.

Marco waved the bag of chips he was claiming. “Oh, hey Tom!” He froze when he saw me, and I hastily shoved the Dracon behind my back. He had seen it though. “Uh... cool water gun?” We both looked over at Jake quickly- Not sure why he did, but I did. I had to. Jake had said something he was really too young to say, although it wasn’t about me. I think.

Still, an answer for Marco. Right. Yeah. “Uh....oh. Yeah, yeah. It’s for-” That was when I realized who else Jake had brought home with him. A boy with brown hair that I’d seen many, many times at meetings of The Sharing. Whose Yeerk was surprisingly close to becoming a Subvisser if they ever showed a little initiative. Erek King.

I swore under my breath and hastily shoved the Dracon into my waistband before he saw me. He was playing some racing game I should have known the name of with Jake like he was a normal kid. I stared at the back of his head as Marco sat down on the other side of him with a bag of chips, and I looked away when Marco glanced back at me. Suddenly, every worst-case scenario was flooding into my head.

You see, I knew Jake wasn’t a Controller. I’d been told so directly by two different Yeerks, so he was fine. But his friends here? One was definitely a Controller, and the other could be a Controller. I think. Marco never showed up to meetings of the Sharing, but given that his mom was host to Visser One, it wouldn’t surprise me if there was some other arrangement made. The Sharing isn’t the only front organization the Yeerks are running, after all.

I slipped into the kitchen and ran a hand through my hair as I looked at our carving knives. I mean, I had the Dracon, but I still couldn’t help but look at the knives. I couldn’t help but glance out the window again and again and again, either. Mom’s car was gone. Dad’s car was gone. There was a van belonging to a cleaning company parked across the street. I swore again- Sunny Smiles Cleaning Service. Crap. Remember how I mentioned The Sharing isn’t the only front for the Yeerks? Yeah. That’s another one. Yeerks gotta pay for Taxxon food somehow.

I inhaled as I looked around and considered my options. One, maybe two, possibly three Controllers in my living room.... I took another sharp breath. Right. I’d been out for too long. They could have easily taken Jake in that time. And there were more Yeerks across the street. Look, I know Yeerk security operations, my last Yeerk was involved with them when he wasn’t recruiting. This had “quiet capture” written all over it. Even if they hadn’t taken Jake yet, it was unlikely they’d just ignore him. And either way, I wouldn’t know. I couldn’t know.

That made my decision for me. I had my wallet, a Dracon, and an encyclopedic knowledge of Yeerk Pool entrances and security tactics. Right now, they were in the waiting phase. When they got the order, they’d come ring on the doorbell, let themselves in, and then I’d be stunned on the spot and re-infested right here, or taken back to the Pool if they somehow forgot to bring a spare Yeerk with them. So I wasn’t waiting. 

 

I slipped out the back to the sound of people calling after me and hopped the fence into the neighbor’s yard. And then I hopped another fence, grunting and panting as I hauled myself over. And I landed right in front of a growling dog.

Now, a growling dog isn’t that bad normally, but this one was big. And I mean big. “Uh....Nice dog...” I edged towards the fencing at the back of the yard that would carry me over to the next street away from the Yeerks. “Good dog. I’m just here for a moment, I promise I’ll be gone soon...”

I’ll tell you right now: That didn’t work at all.

I was panting and out of breath as I hauled myself over the next fence and a bit closer to freedom. “Goddammit Tom,” I muttered to myself. I didn’t want to have to stun the pooch, I swear, but it was either that or let it alert the whole neighborhood! Mrs. Weatherby was going to kill me if she ever found out why her dog was like that. Crap. What if she was a Controller? I mean, the dog wasn’t, but anything bigger than a dog  _ could  _ be. Even horses. 

Still, I realized as I looked up and down this street, I didn’t see anything that screamed “YEERKS!” at me. They probably hadn’t been expecting me to come this way. Or, if they had, they were hidden better than usual. My stomach turned- Yeah, if they’re recapturing a host, they’d want to hide better than usual .

BARK BARK BARK BARK BARK!!

Crap! Mrs. Weatherby’s pooch came barreling over the fence after me, barking as loudly as it could, and I took off as fast as my legs would carry me. I thought I stunned it, but apparently it didn’t know it was stunned! 

Fun fact: Humans can outrun dogs. Another fun fact: That first fun fact is a lie. All you can do is duck into a building and pray the dog gives up. Luckily for me, the public library was just close enough and just abandoned enough that no one was around to question a sweating, panting, almost-screaming teenage boy locking himself in one of the private reading rooms. As I slumped down against the door and stared at the blank walls of the little room, everything hit me. 

The Yeerks had my family. If they weren’t already infested before, they would be now. Guaranteed. They had my name, they had my description... I could feel my insides knotting up. My eyes stung. I was royally screwed. I dragged my hands over my face and tried to control my breathing, but it wasn’t any good. This was it. I had one shot to get help before my family got involved, and I blew it. From here on in, I was on the run. 

Okay. I closed my eyes and tried to think. Where could I go? What could I do? The human resistance was formerly headquartered at the mansion of Joe Bob Fenestre, but that burned down under mysterious circumstances a few months back. Probably due to a Yeerk raid. So that ruled that out. The group met online a little, I knew that, but the Yeerks were increasingly monitoring their communications. Any day now that little group was going to fall. 

That ruled them out. The alien groups were all easy to rule out too. And the Yeerk Peace Movement....no. Just no. I might as well waltz into the Yeerk Pool and shove my head in right now, because there was no way they’d be able to help me.

Someone knocked on the door to the reading room. I groaned. “Occupied!” 

“Wait...” A girl’s voice came from the other side of the door. “Tom?” 

Shoot, I knew that voice! I shot up to my feet and opened the door, trying not to think about how my other hand had already gone back to the Dracon. “Rachel? What’re you doing here?”

She blinked. “Picking up books for a school assignment. What’re _ you  _ doing here?”

Well that seemed like a  _ totally likely _ story with the way she was dressed. “Uh, where are your shoes? Is there a gymnastics meet?” Unlikely, i would’ve seen it on the way in. 

“Oh. It’s a new fitness trend. Walking without your shoes is supposed to improve your posture or something.” She flicked her hair. “So why’re you hiding in a library?” She stared past me into the little room, but there wasn’t anything to see, and she frowned. 

I shook my head. “Sorry, no reason. In fact, if you could do me a huge favor, I was never here. And I’m leaving now. So...bye.” I slipped past her and made my way out again. Could they have already gotten Rachel? Maybe. Maybe not today, maybe ages ago. Or maybe never. But there wasn’t a lot I could expect her to do, I thought. Jake was my brother, but she’s just a cousin I’ve never been close to. And honestly, the odds she was a Controller too were just too high for me to take right now. 

 

I hadn’t gotten much further than that when I got clipped in the back of the head by a big grey bird. “OW!” I cringed and immediately felt around, but there wasn’t any blood. I cursed as the bird landed on a lightpost in front of me, and it gave me a look like somehow this was all my fault.

“Whatever. Crazy bird.” I turned and headed back up the street towards the...where was I going? Great, in all the excitement I’d never figured that part out. Away. Away from the Yeerks sounded good. Which way would that be? One of the small towns, maybe? Northern California was relatively untouched right now, and there was zero Yeerk activity in Oregon. So assuming I could somehow get to Oregon... I started off towards the bus stop on the next block over.

<You do not want to go that way.>

It came so suddenly I couldn’t help but jump. Slowly, I turned to stare at the grey bird on the lamppost, and it continued to stare at me. There was no way... “Andalite?”

<Yes. You’ve escaped from the Yeerks. That interests us.>

Okay, leaving aside the question of how the hell they knew I had escaped, that was great news! Unless this was Visser Three impersonating one of the Andalite bandits, things were suddenly looking a lot better. I cleared my throat.

“Okay, um...what can I do?”

<Do you know the place your people call the Wildlife Rehabilitation Clinic?>

“Uh...kinda?” I think that was Jake’s girlfriend’s place, actually. I knew vaguely that it was near the forest and way on the outskirts of town, and it had only been on the Yeerk radar once. Nothing ever came of that investigation, though.

<You can go there. Once there, head north into the forest approximately half of one of your Earth miles. You will come to a clearing there, where we will meet you.> The bird looked up at another bird circling overhead. <We can escort you from the air, if you would like.>

Well, I wasn’t going to turn that offer down!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Note one: I've decided I'm going to try something new with this story! I'm basically just typing what comes to mind, spellchecking it, then posting it. We'll see how it goes!
> 
> Note two: I have a definite end in mind and it's about 3 or 4 chapters out. That is, of course, assuming Note One doesn't veer me off into 50 chapters!


End file.
